Locomotive fire-box.



F. 'P. GAINES.

LOGOMOTIVE FIRE BOX. APPLICATION FILED 001. 13, 191.3.

Patented Nov. 3, 1914.

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COMPANY, BF NEE)? YORK, N. 3.,

meanest-via or cinders thrown from the locomotive stack.

A further object of my invention is to provide a construction by meansof which the advantages of a dross wall or baflie can be added to arelatively short fire box or to a fire box having a relatively; smallgrate surface without materially decreasing the effective grate area.

My invention consists in a locomotive boiler the box provided with arearwardly inclined bailie Wall at its forward end spaced from the fluesheet and occupying a relatively small portion of the forward end of thegrate space, in combination with'means for holding the wall in inclinedposition, and a cinder outlet entering the space between the Wall andthe flue sheet and projecting rearwardly beneath the wall.

My invention also consists in the association and arrangements ofdevices and parts by means of which the above and other objects areattained and all as hereinafter de scribed and particularly pointed outin the claims.

My invention will be more readily under stood by reference to theaccompanying drawings forming part of this specification and in which:

Figure 1 is a central longitudinal vertical section of a fire boxequipped with a transversely arranged bafile wall and embodying myinvention; Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of the fire box onthe line 22 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a vertical transverse section of thefire box on the line 33 of Fig. l; and Fig. i is a detail section on theline 41-4 of Fig. 3. a

The very great advantages which have accrued from the use of properlyproperv .tioned and positioned cross walls in locomo- Specificstion oiLetters Patent.

Application filed Scto'eei is, isle. Sterial in).

*I Z T. Ea tented bl teases.

apoli cation tive fire boxes has suggested the of such Wallstively'sniall size of the grate se render the installationimpracticable. means of my invention however, I am en abled to installWalls in such fire boxes l obtain thereby such greatly increased etlimoney that the slight reduction in the grate area is more thancounterbalanced by the increased eiiiciency of the fire box due tetherapplication of my invention.

as shown in the drawings, a locomotive boiler fire box'A is usually madeup of flue'sheet a at the forward end, rear sheet a at the rear end,side sheets a and a crown sheet a Flues a extend forwardly from the fluesheet. The rear sheet is provided with a fuel opening or door; a and thebox is provided with a grate a of usual con- .struction. The function ofa cross wall is, to prevent the direct Flow of the gases the libel bedto the fines and to cause them to be projected upwardly toward. the rearend of the fire box ror the purpose not only of baiiiing them in theirescape from the fire thus causing themto be detained box and therein butalso to cause them to flow over substantially the whole oi the innersurface of the fire box and thus most eiliciently give up their heat tothe water contained in the boiler. ranged the wall in a peculiar mannerfor the purpose not only of usin the least amount of grate space for thesupport of the wall, but also for providin an auxiliary combustionchamber between the wall and the flue sneet of a-suiiicient capacity toelliciently aid in the complete combustion of the fuel in. the fire boxbefore the products of combustion escape through the fines.

The arrangement of the wall and its support, which 1 have devised lendsitself advantageously to the production of a hoppered chamber in whichthe 'cin'ders and solid particles of fuel which maybe carried upwardlyin the fire box and over the wall by the strong draft employed can beeasily and convepiently withdrawn from the tire box. To support wall inits position, 'i provide a metallic bridge or cross bearer whichoccupies the forwone i space and which redu 1. e area of the grate to acer in t. o coun- Dion of the area of terbalance this redu grate, iprovide a cross Wall with air inlet to fire boxes wherein the re'lamodto In the present instance I have an openings through which I amenabled. .to. supply air to the burning gases above the fuel bed and Iam therebyenabled to burn as much or more fuel in the fire box havingthe contracted grate as it would be possible to burn in the fire boxbefore my improvements had been installed therein. For. the purpose ofreducing the space at the forward end of the grate, which it isnecessary to use, for the support of the wall and the Withdrawal of thecindei s, to its least possible extent, I provide a construction of wallsupport, air inlet channel and cinder outlet by means of which I amenabled to arrange these features in such a way that they 00- cupy aminimum length of grate space.

In the form of my invention embodied in the drawings, B represents thecross'wall and I support this wall upon a metallic bridge G which issecured at its ends to the mud ring a of the fire box. This bridge orsupporting member spans the ,fire box transversely and "is securelybolted at both of its ends to the fire box. This bridge member comprisesa horizontal foundation plate :0 extending across the fire box, strengthened by means of a forward and a rear] plate 0 and c respectively,whichdepend from the foundation plate 0 and are rigidly secured in their ends,to the sides of they fire box by means of bolts 0 The rear plate 0 isarranged vertically and the forward plate 0 is inclined forwardly towardthe front water leg at of the boiler and serves to close the spacebetween the front' edge of the foundation plate and the for; ward end ofthe fire box. TheCspace be? tween these plates forms a transversechannel or trough 0" adapted to permit the entrance of air into verticalchannels provided in the wall B. I extend the rear wall a above theplate 0 and thereby provide a re taining ledge a on the rear edge of thebridge member. The wall B rises from the supporting bridge in anupwardly and rearwardly inclined position, leaning away from the fluesheet and providing thereby an auxiliary combustion chamber a between;the wall and the fiue sheet. The wall cornprises a plurality ofhorizontal rows of fire bricks b which are laid one upon the other top'rovide a wall of suitable height. I sometimes make the top bricks b ofthe wall of larger dimensions than the other bricks and so associatedwith the others that they project from the rearface of the wall formingan overhanging ledge at the top of the wall. This ledge serves to bafilethe gases as they flow around and over the wall and to cause theintermingling and the intermixing of the gases and thus aids materiallyin the complete combustion of the fuel. The bricks b are interlockedwith the bricks upon which they rest by wide interlocking projections band b and in ad- ."dition the bricks b are over-lapped by the upper endsof a metallic buck stay and are thereby held in position.

To maintain the wall in its inclined position, I-provide, in the form ofWall and support which I have illustrated in the what may be termed ametallic buck stay,c,.. This buck stay rises from the rear edge of thebridge member G and is conformed to the rear face of the wall B. Asillustrated in Fig. 3, I-preferably divide this member vertically intotwo parts both for convenience in installing it and to prevent itsdestruction by expansion and contraction. I rigidl hold the buck stayplate 0 in position by bolting its lower end rigidly to the forward wall0" of the bridge member by bolts 0 The bridge member and the buck stayplates thereby reinforce and strengthen each other, and I furtherstrengthen the buck stay plate by providing its lower end withstrengthening ribs 0 which project from the forward face drawings,

.thereof. This buck stay 0 serves to hold therearwardly inclined wall Bin position and for the purpose of connecting the buck stay with thebricks of which the wall is built, I provide T-shaped ribs 0 verticallyarranged on the rear face of the buck stay and extending from the lowerto the upper end thereof. These ribs are spaced transversely of the firebox and receive one of the bricks 5 between adjacent ribs, and thebricks themselves are provided with suitable interlocking grooves 12 intheir edges for receiving the ribs. It will be understood thatothermeans of. maintaining the wall in its inclined position may be devisedwithout departing from the spirit of my invention v in so far as itrelates to the installation of the cross Wall in a fire box in suchmanner that a minimum grate space will be occupied and an auxiliarycombustion chamber provided. I prefer to keep the upper ends of the ribs0 as indicated in Fig. 3, below the top of the wall so that they will beprotected from the high temperatures of the fire box. I arrange thebridge member C very close to the forward water leg a of the fire boxfor the purpose of using aminimum portion of the grate space, and inorder to provide a cinder outlet passage I arrange it somewhat above thesurface of the grate. vThis construction provides room between the rearedge of the bridge member 0 and the forward water-leg for theinstallation of a cinder outlet 0. I'arrange the outlet 0 in the middleportion of the lower end of the inclined buck stay, and in order to beable to carry the cinder outlet downwardly to a point below the gratewhere it is convenient to discharge it, I- provide an elbow member' asecured to the forward wall 0 of the brldge member and leadingrearwardly from the opening 0 beneath the bridge plate 0 encroachingsomewhat upon the channel By means of this construction I am enabled tocompress these devices longitudinally of the fire box and provide anefficient bridge member and a cinder outlet so arranged that combinedtogether they occupy a relatively small part longitudinally of the gratespace of the fire box. The wall B itself is provided with upwardlyextending air channels b which extend from the lower end upwardlythrough the wall and are adapted to discharge air at the rear face ofthe wall below the overhanging ledge 6 The bearing plate (1 is providedwith suitable openings (.1 through which air is admitted to thesechannels from the air channel and as the air rises through the passagesIf it is heated to a considerable extent before it is discharged intothe firebox.

The forward face of the wall B and the flue sheet together with the sidewalls of the fire box form the auxiliary combustion chamber a! and toform a hoppered bottom therein I fill in this chamber at its lower endby means of inclined walls a at each side of the cinder outlet and theside sheets of the fire box, so-

, that the cinders which are deposited in the combustion chamber willtend to gravitate into the cinder outlet o from which they can bereadily withdrawn. To preventthe air from flowing upwardly through thecinder outlet I provide a cover 0 for its lower end and which normallycloses the lower end thereof and is adapted to be opened when it isdesired to withdraw the cinders from the auxiliary combustion chamber.

It will now be understood that by means 3 of my invention, I am enabledto provide a cross wall in the fire box arranged in the ing and withoutencroaching upon the grate area to such an extent that the efiiciency ofthe fire box is reduced, but, on the contrary,

,the beneficial results arising from the improvements increase theefficiency of the boiler and materially reduce the quantity of sparks orcinders thrown from the stack of the locomotive.

chamber is divided from the main part of This latter result ismaterially aided by the fact that the auxiliary the fire box by arelatively narrow passagebetween the upper edge of the wall and thecrown sheet, and as the gases of combustion flow into and expand intheauxiliary combustion chamber their speed is reduced and this serves tocau'sethe gases to deposit the cinders and sparks carried thereby in thehoppered bottom of the auxiliary combustion chamber before they arecarried or drawn into the boiler flues.

As many modifications of my invention will readily suggest themselves toone skilled in the art, I do not confine my invention'to the particularform in which I have illustrated it, or to the specific structuresherein shown and described.

I claim:

1. In a locomotive boiler fire box a rearwardly inclined bridge wallarranged at the forward end thereof, a channeled wall-supporting memberarranged at the forward end of the grate space and spaced slightly tothe rear and above the lower edge of the flue sheet, an inclined buckstay arranged at the forward side of the bridge wall adapted to supportsame and extending downwardly and forwardly to the lower edge of theflue sheet, a cinder outlet entering the space between the bridge walland the flue sheet through the lower end of the inclined buck stay and acinder outlet passage extending beneath the bridge wall support andadapted to discharge the cinders from the space between the bridge walland the flue sheet.

2. In a locomotive boiler fire box an inclined transverse refractorywall arranged at the forward end thereof and rising from the level ofthe grate upwardly and rearwardly through the fire box, and adapted tofeed heated air into the fire box, a bridge member spanning the fire boxadapted to support the wall in its position and provided with atransverse air channel on its under side adapted to feed air to thewall, a cinder out-let arranged between the lower end of the wall andthe lower end of the flue sheet said cinder outlet extending rearwardlybeneath the bridge member and into said air channel whereby the bridgemember and the cinder outlet occupy a minimum space longitudinally ofthe fire box.

. In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, this 1st day ofOct, 1913, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

FREDERICK F. GAINES.

Witnesses J. R. Kounrnn. lVrE. Davis.

